Guard rail stanchion



1969 J. r. BOURN ETAL 3, 80,257

GUARD RAIL STANCHION Filed Jan. 5, 1968 United States Patent Olhce 3,480,257 Patented Nov. 25, 1969 U.S. Cl. 25659 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A guard rail stanchion to be utilized during the construction of a building to prevent both persons and materials from falling over the open edges of a floor section of the building, and which includes an upright member, the height of which is adjustable; a support member attached to the bottom of the upright member which rests on the floor section of the building; a clamping member adjustably pivoted at one end of the support member and having a portion thereof which extends under the floor section to which the stanchion is to be attached; a locking means which engages the clamping member and pivots the clamping member into engagement with the floor section to hold the stanchion in position; and rail support means that are provided at the top and bottom of the upright member for receiving guard rails of conventional design therein to prevent persons from falling over the edge of the floor section as well as to prevent material from being accidentially knocked over the edge of the floor section.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of invention This invention releates generally to a guard rail stanchion to be utilized during the construction of a building and more particularly to a guard rail stanchion which is quickly and easily adjustable to provide utilization in a wide range of structures and which provides guard rail means above the floor section of the structure to prevent persons from falling therefrom as well as toe board means adjacent the floor section to prevent material from being inadvertantly knocked over the edge thereof.

Description of prior art In building construction, guard rails of some type are often utilized to prevent persons from falling over the edges of the structure and injuring themselves. One practice in mounting these guard rails is to string a rope between the upright columns of the building structure. However, one of the problems associated with this type of practice is that a rather large space exists between the upright columns thereby making it difficult to make the rope stable and of a constant height so as to prevent someone from falling over the edge of the building under construction.

Another practice in the prior art is to provide a detachable stanchion which mounts pieces of lumber therebetween to provide a more rigid structure and to better support persons who may inadvertantly move toward the open edge of the building structure. One of the problems associated with these prior art stanchions is that the time necessary to place the stanchions around the building and properly adjust the stanchions for the many different thicknesses of floor sections that may be involved is prohibitive. Another problem with these prior art type stanchions is that no guard rail or toe board was provided adjacent the floor level of the structure to prevent materials such as tools and other articles which are laying on the floor section from being knocked over the open edge thereof. This greatly increased the danger of someone below being struck by falling articles.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION These and other problems associated with prior art guard rail stanchions are overcome by providing a stanchion structure which can be quickly and easily adjusted to accommodate many different floor thicknesses so that the time for mounting the stanchions around the open edge of the building is greatly reduced. Moreover, :a support means is provided for a lower guard rail or toe board adjacent the floor level which can receive any number of type of toe boards and which will prevent tools and other loose articles laying on the floor section from being inadvertantly knocked over the open edge thereof.

The apparatus of the invention comprises generally an upright member which is adjustable in length; a support member which rests on the floor and which is attached to the bottom of the upright member; a clamping member which extends under the open edged floor section of the building and which is pivotally mounted at a selected height at one end of the support member, and locking means which selectively pivots the clamping means with respect to the support member to clamp the stanchion in position. Rail support means are provided at both the upper and lower ends of the upright member so that guard rails may be placed therein to prevent persons from accidentally falling over the edge of the floor and to prevent loose articles that may be lying on the floor from being accidentally knocked over the open edge of the building.

These and other features of the invention will be more clearly understood upon consideration of the following specification and accompanying drawings wherein like characters of reference designate corresponding parts throughout and in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the invention shown in FIG. 1; and,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a building structure showing guard rail stanchions made in accordance with the present invention being utilized.

These figures and the following detailed description disclose an illustrative embodiment of the invention, however, the inventive concept is not limited thereto since it may be embodied in other forms. l

DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. 1, it will be seen that the stanchion comprises generally an upright member 10, a horizontal support member 11, an L-shaped clamping member 12 pivotally connected at a selective position to the horizontal member 11 and a locking means 13 which selectively pivots the clamping member 12 to lock the stanchion in position on the open edge of a floor section of a building under construction.

The upright member comprises a fixed tubular portion 14 and an extendable rod portion 15 slidably received in the upper end of the tubular portion 14, the tubular portion 14 having aligned apertures 16 therethrough for the receipt of a support pin 17. A plurality of passages 18 are provided through the rod portion 15 and are selectively alignable with the apertures 16 through the tubular portion 14 so that the support pin 17 may be passed through the apertures 16 and any selected one of the passages 18 to selectively adjust the height of the rod portion 15. The upper end of the rod portion 15 is provided with a support ring 19 through which a rope or pipe guard rail (not shown) may be passed. Just below the upper end of the rod portion 15 there is provided a pair of L-shaped support braces 20 which receive guard rails G such as those constructed from lumber so that either the support ring 19 or the support braces 20 may be utilized to support the chosen form of the upper guard rail.

The horizontal support member 11 is an angle iron member having the lower end of the tubular portion 14 fixedly attached thereto adjacent one end thereof and having a pivot bracket 21 extending from the other end thereof and provided with aligned apertures for the receipt of a pivot pin 22 therethrough. Support braces 23 similar in construction to the upper support braces 20 are mounted at the lower end of the tubular portion 14 and appropriate cutouts 24 are provided in one of the flanges of the horizontal support member 11 so that lower guard rails or toe boards T such as lumber may be received therethrough.

The L-shaped clamping member 12 comprises a substantially vertical leg 25 and a substantially horizontal leg 26 with the vertical leg 25 defining a plurality of apertures 27 therethrough sufficient in size to receive the pivot pin 22 therethrough when aligned with the apertures in the pivot bracket 21. The pivot pin 22 and the support pin 17 are of the conventional quick release type. By removing the pin 16, slidably moving the rod portion 15 up or down, and re-inserting the pin 17, the height of the upper guard rail G can be quickly and easily adjusted. The distance between the horizontal arm 26 and the horizontal support member 11 can be quickly and easily varied simply by removing the pin 22, moving the member 12 up or down through the pivot bracket 21, and replacing the pin 22 at the selected position.

The locking means 13 comprises a support bracket 28 extending upwardly from the horizontal member 11 and provided with a boss 29 at the upper end thereof which has a threaded aperture therethrough for the receipt of an adjusting bolt 30 of conventional design. The support bracket 28 positions the bolt 30 sufiiciently close to the upper extending end of the member 12 so that the bolt 30 may be adjusted with respect to the boss 29 and engage the upper end of the member 12 to cause the leg 26 to pivot up and engage the bottom of the open floor section F to which the stanchion is to be attached. This locks the stanchion securely in place.

The guard rails G and toe boards T may be placed in position within the support brackets 20 and 23, respectively, and locked in position by inserting screws or nails through holes 33 in the brackets 20 and 23 and into the rails G or toe boards T to provide a strong rigid structure. This serves to provide a guard rail above the floor F to prevent persons from falling from the building and a toe board adjacent the floor of the building to prevent tools and other articles from being inadvertently knocked from the floor over the open edge of the building.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described herein, it is to be understood that full use of modifications, equivalents, and substitutions may be resorted to without departing from the scope of the inventive concept.

What is claimed as our invention is:

1. A guard rail stanchion construction for use at the open edge of a floor section of a building structure comprising:

a support member having a horizontal bearing surface for resting on top of the floor section;

a selectively extendable upright member carried by and extending upwardly from said support member;

a clamping member having a generally vertical leg and a generally horizontal leg, said vertical leg having a plurality of spaced apertures formed therein, said clamping member being pivotally carried by said support member at any selected one of said plurality of vertically spaced apertures along said vertical leg with said horizontal leg extending under said bearing surface; and

locking means associated with said support member and constructed and arranged to pivot said clamping member into engagement with the bottom floor section of said building structure to fixedly attach said support member to said building structure.

2. The guard rail stanchion construction of claim 1 and further including a first rail support means carried by said upright member adjacent the upper end for receiving a rail section therein.

3. The guard rail stanchion construction of claim 2 further including means for releasably securing a rail section in said first rail support means.

4. The guard rail stanchion construction of claim 2 further including a second rail support means carried by said upright member adjacent the lower end thereof for receiving a toe board therein.

5. A guard rail stanchion for use on the edge of a floor with guard rails of round or rectangular cross-section and toe boards comprising:

a horizontal support member having a flat bottom bearing flange for placement on top of the floor and a reinforcing flange integral therewith and upstanding therefrom;

an upright member including a fixed tubular portion attached at its lower end to the top of said bearing flange of said support member, and a rod portion slidably received in the upper open end of said tubular portion, said tubular portion defining a pair of aligned apertures adjacent the upper end thereof and said rod portion defining a plurality of vertically spaced passages therethrough, each being selectively alignable with said apertures to define a common passage;

a support pin selectively received through said aligned apertures and passages to fix said rod portion with respect to said tubular portion;

a pivot bracket carried by said horizontal support at its end opposite that to which said tubular portion is attached and defining a pivot aperture therethrough;

an L-shaped clamping member including a generally vertical leg and a generally horizontal leg, said vertical leg defining a plurality of vertically spaced positioning apertures therethrough selectively alignable with said pivot aperture to define a common passage with said horizontal leg spaced below and extending under said bearing flange;

a pivot pin selectively received through said aligned pivot aperture and positioning apertures to pivotally connect said horizontal support member with said L-shaped clamping member;

locking means including an upstanding support bracket carried by said horizontal support member interme diate to its ends and adjacent said pivot bracket, and a locking bolt threadedly received through said support bracket and engaging said vertical leg of said L-shaped support bracket to pivot said horizontal leg toward said bearing flange to lock said stanchion to the edge of a fioor between said horizontal leg and said bearing flange;

5 6 upper support means carried by the upper end of said 2,531,107 11/1950 Burkey.

rod portion for mounting the guard rails; and 2,798,296 7/1957 Liskey 248--228 X lower support means carried by the lower end of said 2,987,299 6/ 1961 Kneen 25624 tubular portion for mounting the toe boards adja- 3,178,139 4/1965 McFarlin 24843 cent the floor. 3,333,807 8/1967 Locatelli 248226 3,351,311 11/1967 Melfi 25665 X UNIT References Clted FOREIGN PATENTS ED STATES PATENTS 81,397 3/ 1953 Norway. 2,706,662 4/1955 Brown H 182113 ,8 ,10 9/1957 Jova s 182113 X 10 DENNIS L. TAYLOR, Primary Examiner 3,084,759 4/1963 Squire l82113 351,096 10/1886 Cooley 25659 U.S. C1. X.R. 838,266 12/1906 McKee et a1. 52184 182-1131 25665 2,507,977 5/1950 Jacobsen 256-24 X 

